The Weight of Living
by thehonorarycompanion
Summary: Evelyn Potts has never been entirely brave in her life, but when her mother passes away and leaves behind a necklace that she says needs protecting, she'll have no choice but to be brave. She doesn't know of the strange friends she'll make, the deadly enemies she'll face, or the problems she'll have to overcome. After all, it's just a necklace. How special can it be? Possible 11/OC
1. The Necklace

**A/N - Yep, I created a new OC because I lost muse for Emma :( Really hoping to get that back soon! But for now...meet Evie.**

**Disclaimer - I do not own Doctor who or anything in it. I only own my OC, Evelyn Potts.**

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_Isaac, I have never seen you look so afraid_  
_With your head pressed so hard against the stone_  
_You look so alone_

_I'm gonna give all my love to you_

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She stared down at the stone. The words etched into it made her stomach turn and made her pray she was dreaming. _Just wake up._ She didn't. She continued to stare down at the carved stone, her black dress seeming to constrict her chest more and more. She expected her dress to tear around her knees as she knelt down in the freshly mounded dirt, her fingers reaching out to trace the words of the epitaph.

_Helen Potts_  
_1964 - 2010_  
_Loving wife and mother_

Her brow furrowed as she noticed the edges of more letters, hidden behind weeds that she was sure hadn't been there before. She hurriedly pushed them aside, tearing some from their place as she scrambled to reveal the letters. _The end. _She had no time to contemplate the words before there was a tight grip on her wrist and she was yanked down against the ground, her panicked gaze quickly shooting down to see a filthy hand had burst from the earth. _Wake up. _She screamed, struggling against the grip, her eyes widening as the hand turned to bone before her very eyes and still pulled her down. _Wake up, wake up, wake up!_

She did.

"Jesus, Evie!"

She shot up and grabbed at her wrist, expecting to touch bones, but instead just feeling her own skin. She blinked a few times before she started to calm down, able to take in her surroundings and find her brother standing beside her bed. " Andrew? What are you doing in my room? What's the matter?" She eyed the way he rubbed his chest. "Heartburn?"

"No, it's not _heartburn_." He hissed, rubbing at his chest a moment more before he let his hand fall to his side. "You _hit_ me. Now I remember why I ran away screaming when we were kids and I was told to wake you up. You save all that anger for when you're sleeping."

As she listened to him, she registered the slight throbbing in her knuckles and lifted her right hand up, flexing her fingers as she looked at the reddening skin. "Sorry." She grimaced. "But what are you doing in here?" She saw the way he practically gulped and she knew that it wasn't for anything good. "Andrew?"

"The man is here...with Mum's will. Dad's entertaining him, but he's an impatient, little fu-"

"Right." She interrupted him, sliding out of bed. "You go on and help Dad entertain the little man, I'll be down in a moment." She all but shoved him out into the hallway before shutting the door, turning and pressing her back against it with a sigh. In just a few minutes, she'd be sat on her sofa, listening to some man she didn't even know go on about what her mother had left behind. It took a few deep breaths for her to be able to convince herself she could handle it, forcing herself to move from the door and pull on presentable clothes. She made her way downstairs a few moments later.

"The funeral was this past Saturday, yes?"

"Yes, just a few days ago-"

"Hey, look, it's Evie! Let's skip the boring conversations and get on with it!"

She couldn't help but smile slightly at the way her brother covered up with humorous comments, though she knew it irritated their father. It brought the tiniest hint of light to such a dark occasion. The three soon sat down on the sofa as the man — whose name she wasn't sure she'd ever learned — took a seat in the chair across from them. He cleared his throat and began to speak about something Evie probably should have listened to, but she didn't start to listen until he read the will. "This is the last will and testament of Helen Potts. I, Helen Potts, of-"

That was the point where she tuned out again. She knew she was supposed to listen, she knew she had to be able to handle this, but she just couldn't bear to hear about all that was left of her mother. It wasn't until she heard her name that she forced herself to listen to the man's words.

"To my daughter, Evelyn, I leave this envelope, that she and only she may open." The man gingerly pulled an envelope from his pocket and Evie automatically stood, stepping forward to take it from his hand. She could feel a small lump in the envelope and couldn't begin to imagine what was in it, taking a quick glance at her father before slipping quietly into the kitchen. As she opened the small, yellowing envelope and pulled the letter out to unfold it, the man's now muffled voice began to fade and she could almost hear her mother as she read:

_My dearest Evelyn,_

_If you're reading this, I'm gone. I'm trying not to write anything too bad because I can't stand for my beautiful girl to be sad, but I can't go without telling you how much I love you. I miss your hand being so tiny it could barely clutch my finger. I miss how you'd hug your father's legs every day when he came home from work. I miss your first day of school, when you claimed to have every illness you knew the name of just so you wouldn't have to go. I miss you coming home that first day and telling me all about the friends you made and the pictures you drew. I miss you talking so excitedly about your first love. I miss watching films, eating sweets, crying, and hugging the whole night before you left for university. I'm going to miss you more than you could possibly know, my love._

_But I need you to be brave now. I need you to be brave and strong, like I know you are deep down inside of you. Inside the envelope is a necklace; it's a very special necklace that you'll need to put on and protect with your life. I can't tell you how it's special or what you need to do, but I know that you're smart and you'll learn along the way. I know that you'll do everything you can to keep it safe, even if you get scared._

_And I know you will get scared. You might get so scared that you'll back into the corner and want so desperately to take the necklace off, but you __can't__. You just need to remember that no matter how scared you are, I'm right here. Even when you have your back against the wall and you're sure there's no escape, I'll always be right here for you. Just remember that._

_I suppose there's not much more I can say. I love you so much, Evie._

_Be brave._

To put it simply, Evie was a bit confused, but she blinked through her tears and set the letter down, pulling the necklace out. The chain was silver and looked rather frail, but the pendant is what caught her eye. It didn't have a special shape to it, just a sphere held to the chain by the metal ring wrapped around the middle of it, but the color was a light blue with specks of gold and white that almost seemed to move. She couldn't guess how it was special, but it was beautiful and her mother had asked her to wear it, so she pulled the chain around her neck, her hands disappearing behind her hair. It took a moment before she had managed to clasp it, the pendant falling against her chest, and she was surprised to feel a sudden stinging at the back of her neck. She hissed slightly and reached back, unable to see the yellow glow that disappeared as her fingertips touched the chain.

"Evie?"

She spun around at the sound of the voice, seeing her father and brother standing in the doorway. "Uh..." She grabbed the pendant and held it up. "Mum gave me a necklace." She wasn't entirely sure what else to say.

Her father stepped forward, extending a hand. "Evie, love—"

"Could we use groceries?" She spun on her heel and moved to the fridge, pulling the door open to peer at the near-empty shelves. "Yes! Don't worry, I'll just run out to the market and pick some up." She started out of the kitchen, picking up the letter as she went and pushing past the two men. "I'll be back in an hour...or six." She slipped on her shoes and jacket, shoving the letter into her pocket as she grabbed her purse. "Don't wait up!" She remembered it was the morning — or, possibly, the afternoon — when she stepped outside and squinted against the sun.

She hadn't seen the sun in a couple days; not since her mother's funeral. She had finished university and moved back home as soon as she found out her mum was sick, so it's not as if she had any reason not to hole herself up in her room for a day or two.

She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to the sun, fishing her keys out of her bag as she walked over to her car. She unlocked the door and climbed inside, taking a small moment to breathe. "Oh, Mum, I miss you...I love you." Teary eyes met the mirror as her fingers came up to touch the pendant of her necklace. "But what's so special about this?"

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**A/N - I imagine she'll be finding out soon enough. So, what have we learned about Evie? She recently lost her mother to an illness, she has a father and a brother, she gets violent in her sleep, she's not very brave, she graduated from university, she moved back home, and she has a special necklace...hm. Maybe we'll find out more next chapter. Or maybe we'll meet the Doctor.**


	2. Doctor Who?

**A/N - Glad to see you guys are enjoying it so far :) Your reviews, follows, and favorites mean a lot!**

**Disclaimer - I do not own Doctor Who. I only own my OC, Evelyn Potts.**

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_Holy ghost, when do you come out to play?_  
_'Cause if the Lord is gonna find me_  
_He better start looking today_

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Evie sighed for the sixth or seventh time as she searched through her bag for her keys, the process a thousand times more harder and a million times more frustrating since she was holding several bags of groceries in one hand. Her shoulder was bent at an odd angle from having to keep the strap of her purse up while the hand on that same arm searched desperately, only to grasp things that definitely weren't car keys. When her fingers finally did touch the teeth of a key, she could have cried in relief as she hurried to her car to unlock the door. She dropped off the bags and her purse in the passenger seat, shutting the door to head over to the driver's side, only for her keys to slip from her grasp as she pulled them from the lock. She had just groaned and started to crouch down to pick them up when she realized that someone was breathing behind her. Heavily.

Goose bumps rose on her skin and she could almost feel her heart rate picking up. A hundred different scenarios of what could be about to happen flew through her mind, but she forced herself to turn and face whoever or whatever it was. At worst, she had expected a murderous-looking person. She most definitely hadn't expected whatever _this_ was. It was at least seven feet tall, bold yellow skin and black eyes, and two hands full of sharp, long claws. A scream fell past her lips and, despite her shock, she just barely managed to duck as the thing brought a hand down and sunk its claws into the roof of her car, getting itself stuck in the metal. Her fear made her pause for a moment, staring wide-eyed as the creature tried to pull its claws out, and it wasn't until it had gotten free that she scrambled to her feet and started to back away.

Something in the back of her mind told her to run, but she was too afraid to turn around. All she could imagine was those claws going through her back easier than they had gone through the car. The thing lunged and she screamed again, tripping over her own feet and falling painfully onto her backside and elbows, though she continued to scramble back. In her haste, her hair fell behind her shoulders and her necklace was revealed to the creature; she didn't notice the way that the pendant glowed blue, but she certainly noticed the way that her attacker froze and had something akin to fear come to its face. Her mind finally caught up at that moment and she scrambled to her feet, turning and racing in the other direction. She ran until she came to a big, blue police box and she skidded to a stop, debating whether or not to hide in it.

"Too obvious." She shook her head and ran right past. She was just turning the corner of a building when she nearly ran into someone, both of them letting out loud screams and jumping back from each other. When she saw it was human, she let out a breath despite the gasps she took and put her hand to her chest.

"You know, someone should really teach you not to do that!" It was a man who had shaggy brown hair and was quite tall, and he wore a red bow tie around his neck. "You scared the living daylights out of me!" The comical anger on his face turned to confusion and then worry as he looked her over. "What's wrong?"

She had to take a few deep breaths before she could speak, her nerves calming down just slightly now that she wasn't alone "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Oh, trust me." His tone was grim, yet reassuring. "I'll probably believe you."

She had just opened her mouth to say something when there was a soft growl, and the man stared over her head for a moment before he grabbed her wrist, tugging her forward. It wasn't falling against his chest that made her squeal, but the fact that the creature had followed her and had scraped its claws across the brick of the building, right next to where she'd been standing. "That..._that_ is what's wrong!"

"I believe you!" He then grabbed onto her wrist. "Run!" He didn't give her much of a choice as she would have been dragged had she not managed to stumble after him the moment he began to run, moving around the creature rather than running away from it. She expected to run past the blue box, but instead the man skidded to a stop at the door and hurried to get it open.

"We can't hide in there!" Her fear was half adrenaline by now and her body was urging her to run rather than hide in a tiny box — if she hadn't had adrenaline pumping through her, she would have gone with anything that might save her and be silent while she did. "Isn't it a bit _obvious_? Not to mention, that _thing_ can probably just tip it over!"

The man froze for a moment before he turned, looking her straight in the eye. "Trust me." He gave a sudden grin, grabbing her hand again and tugging her into the box despite the way her body refused to move.

"But I don't even know yo-" Her sentence cut off with her mouth hanging open. She had expected four blue walls that could barely hold the two of them, but instead the box was impossibly bigger. The room she was standing in had to be bigger than the first floor of her house and even had doorways that seemed to lead to more. There was some sort of control panel in the middle of the room that stretched all the way to the ceiling, and Evie was too busy looking around in shock to notice the man releasing her hand and moving over to it. It took a few moments for her to finally take it in and look over at him as he now flicked switches and pulled levers. Her adrenaline was fading and her voice suddenly sounded so small as she asked, "Who are you?" She thought he wasn't going to answer, still going about his business, but he soon pulled down a final lever and turned to her.

"The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Ah, love hearing that. Sometimes I forget..." He trailed off at the look on her face and cleared his throat, his smile dropping. "Right, sorry, _just_ the Doctor."

She looked at him for a long moment. "No one calls their child _Doctor_. That's just—" Her eyes widened as realization dawned on her. "I'm on the telly, aren't I?" She looked around quickly for any cameras she may have missed, but saw none. "That..._monster_ was fake! Oh, Lord, I must look like a crazed idiot! My friends and family are going to see it..." She groaned, her face turning red as her hands came up to cover it. "This is humiliating."

"Well..._now_ you might be humiliated because, no, you're not on television. You're one of the closed-minded humans, eh? Something amazing happens and your mind goes straight to something as simple as _television_." He scoffed.

She slowly lowered her hands, though her face didn't change back to its normal color. It seemed that she _wasn't_ on a television programme after all and that was almost as embarrassing as being seen running from something that wasn't even real. She thought carefully about what else it could be and as she came to another idea, her face attempted to turn pale. "I'm dead." It came out as a soft squeak. "But...I just graduated university! I haven't got my dream job yet, or moved out for good, or found a boyfriend! Oh, and poor Dad and Andy, so soon after—" She suddenly paused, fearful eyes going to him. "Are you God or Satan?"

"Depends on who you ask." He gave a soft smile, but there was a distinct sadness in his eyes that Evie was too upset to notice.

"I can't be dead, I...I have to find Mum." She turned back to the door.

"No, no, no!"

She didn't hear him and just pulled open the door, not noticing that she was surrounded by stars until she had already stepped out. A high scream left her lips as the floor disappeared from beneath her feet and she expected to be pulled out into space, but there were soon arms around her waist, pulling her back enough that the floor was under her again. There was a long silence, the Doctor panting slightly from the fear he'd felt and the way he'd run to save her, and he didn't let her go until he began to speak.

"You're not dead, so don't try to get yourself that way." He tugged her back a bit more and shut the door, stepping away from her.

"We're in space." She swallowed, turning to face him with her eyes even wider than they had been before, her heart beating too fast. "We ran from some creature, into a call box that's bigger on the inside, and now we're in _space_! If this isn't television and I'm not dead, then you better start explaining because I might scream!"

Panic came to his eyes. "Yes, no, that would be very, very, _very_ not good. Let's not start screaming. See, as you know, I'm the Doctor. That...well, I'm not entirely sure what we were running from, just that it was dangerous and scared, and that I've never met one before. We're in my TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space, hence the bigger on the inside." He gestured around the room. "It's a space ship that's another dimension and it travels through time and space. Also why we're in space." Though he did enjoy explaining it, he eyed her warily, worried of how she would react. "Going to scream?"

She stared at him with pursed lips and shook her head. "No."

"Oh." He let out a breath that he hadn't been aware he was holding. "Good. That's a relief, you wouldn't believe how many people have thought that I'm—"

"I think I'm going to pass out now." Just seconds after she said the words, everything was going hazy and her legs gave out beneath her. The Doctor caught her just in time, grunting slightly and lowering to his knees with her sudden weight in his arms, turning her over to find she was definitely out. For a moment, his eyes went to her necklace as it danced in the light, drawn to it for a few seconds before he shook his head, turning his attention to her. It was when he realized he didn't know her name and couldn't say it until she woke up that he heaved her into his arms and carried her over to the jump seat. He found himself wondering if she was going to be fainting all the time.

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**A/N - And there's chapter two! Evie and the Doctor have met and we've discovered that aliens are scared of the necklace. Hm. Stay tuned for chapter three, I'm already starting on it!**


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